All characters copyrighted by Gainax, not me. SPOILERS AHEAD! In this fic, Yui Ikari is NOT part of Unit 1. If you have a problem with this, don't read. Home Toji hoped that Shinji would help them when the fight started. He knew how Shinji was feeling, he felt it himself. The feeling that this fight may turn out the way the last one did. The feeling that they might have control ripped from them and forced to do battle. He thought about what must be going through Shinji's mind right now. Toji had no knowledge about anything going on between Shinji and Asuka, but... _something_ was there. He could feel it. Right down in his bones. He had, for a short time before he left, thought that Shinji had a thing for Asuka, and that she had a thing for him. But then he left Nerv and everyone behind, and never looked back it seemed. Shinji had shut everyone out of his life. Toji also knew that Rei had an interest in Shinji at one point, but he didn't know of what kind. But then Shinji came home, and things have been really strange for the last couple of weeks. First, Asuka and Rei both had to move in with him. Second, just after Shinji had attacked the boy at school, and Toji had to go for shots, Asuka felt sorry for him and dragged Hikari and Rei with them to go shopping. That is assumimg that Hikari told him the whole story about shat happened that afternoon. Nothing wrong with that, but it was clothes shopping; and as far Toji knew, girls only went shopping for clothing with their friends. When he talked Shinji into at least _picking_ the gun up, Toji had made a gamble. He bet on what he felt in his bones, that something was going on, or going to be going on, between Shinji and Asuka. 'Not like I'll ever know,' Toji thought sourly. The younger Ikari didn't bat an eyelash at the mention of what may happen to Asuka and the rest if he doesn't fight. In fact, it seemed as if he didn't hear the rest of it, but just moved automatically. 'But, as long as he's holding a weapon, he has some chance,' Toji thought. The four children were on their own, no help from Nerv would be coming. Makoto and Shigeru finally got the sercurity cameras in the city-fortress working, but they could not find any power cables or any indications of the UN's presence in the city, or how they planned to power their Eva's. When they reported this, Fuyutsuki looked shocked, though Ritsuko knew it to be a mask. The Commander only raised an eyebrow at the news. "Interesting," he said quietly, his mind elsewhere. He was trying to decide about what to with Unit 1. All of his and Fuyutsuki's carfully made plans had several prerequsists. Seele was also banking hevily on several assumed facts, but their plans didn't include the reunion of a family. 'All they've cared about was becoming living gods,' Commander Ikari mused silently. 'Nothing like family would ever be a high priority in their minds,' he added. "Commander, what could it mean?" Shigeru asked in regards to the lack of external power sources for the enemy Eva's. When he got no answer, he looked up at his superior. The Commander's gaze was on his desk, studying something. "We'll just have to wait and see," Fuyustuki answered. Commander Ikari was too engrossed with the thought that had just occured to him. He called up the security files of Unit 1 with it's eyes glowing. Then he cross-referenced that file with the dates that Shinji reported getting headaches and nightmares on. Unfortunatly, he saw what he was looking for. He looked at the results, and then went through the whole process again, calling up the files, cross-referencing the dates, and he came up with the same thing again. He called Fuyutsuki over to see it. When Fuyutsuki understood what the Commander saw, his eyes opened wide. "So there is a pattern?" Fuyutsuki asked, wary of what may happen in the upcoming battle. "Yes. Unfortunatly, the pattern shows that another major incident should occur right in the middle of the battle," Commander Ikari said dispashionatly. Fuyutsuki looked at the man beside him. 'Why isn't he interested? It could be the difference between life and eath for the pilots,' he thought. "And why are you not concerned? It could change the balance of the battle," Fuyutsuki said. "Because I know that there's nothing you or I could ever do about it, so it is not too important." Fuyutsuki opened his mouth to respond, but the Commander cut him off with a wave of his hand. "And besides, we don't really have the time to worry about it. We'll deal with it when it happens," he said. Misato was trying to puzzle out the apparent lack of power systems for the inbound Eva's when a thought struck her. 'What if they plan to use _our_ power systems?'. She decided that she needed an answer. "Commander Ikari, what if the UN decided to use our power systems; the ones for _our_ Eva's?" "Doubtful. That would involve reactivating the power sys..." he trailed off as a thought occured to him. "That could be why they want to shut off our power, to divert it to their forces," he said, and Fuyustuki and Ritsuko looked at him again. The more he lied about their knowledge about the situation, the more uncomfortable they got. Surely the Commander knew that he could be killing all four pilots by not helping them enough, didn't he? "By the way, just _how_ are we going to power our Eva's?" Kaji asked. After three years, he'd been put back on the combat roster, directly under Commander Ikari control. Kaji had apparently given up the other half of his job. "We'll have the power," Commander Ikari replied. Misato doubted that. Right now, the Eva's were using base power, but there was only enough the keep them in the minimal gain mode. Only basic movements, nothing fast, life support, and communications were activated. The current plan was to give them the same battery packs that were used when the power failed three years ago. "Somehow, I doubt that'll make the pilots feel any better," Ritsuko said. For once, she didn't know what the Commander's plans were. She never knew them in any detail, she just knew what he wanted to accomplish. But this, this she had no glimmers about. She glanced over at Commander Fuyutsuki, and he shook his head. He had no idea as well. Unfortunatly for her, Misato looked up just in time to see that glance. 'What are they planning?' Misato thought and briefly contimplated asking. But that would only weaken the apperance of everything going as normal, that everything was going to a plan that the Commander had made up at the last minute. She was still unsure about how she now thought of NERV. What their plans are for after the Angels, the truths about the Eva's. Misato wondered how evil those plans could be so that only the top three people in the organization knew about them. However, for Shinji Ikari, the twenty-two minuets passed in a blur. It seemed to him that after he talked with Toji and Asuka the world shot into fast-forward. From his point of view, he had only just severed the signal between him and Unit 2, and then he blinked. He could see nine specks against the sky. He could see his _enemy_, even though he had no wish to hurt them. 'But if I don't fight, Asuka and the others will die!' he thought to himself. 'I have to make a decision right now!' he thought. 'If I get distracted in the fight, it could end everything that we've been fighting for. So, what do I do? Do I fight? Do I not fight?' he asked himself, and then he modified the last thought. 'Do I run away?' and that was followed by, 'I mustn't run away I mustn't run away I mustn't run away...' It was the first time that he'd used those words since decided to come back to NERV. 'I guess I've made up my mind,' he thought, and brought his weaponry to full alert. "Major! Eva Unit 1 is entering combat position," Maya happily reported as all four Eva's hid themselves in the city of Tokyo 3. "And how is the evacuation?" Misato asked. "Completed four minutes ago, Major," Shigeru said, grinning ear to ear. "Oh," Misato said sheepisly. "Contact in five... four... three... two... one. The UN Eva's have landed in Tokyo 3," Maya reported. "Put them up on the main screen," Misato ordered. The image was displayed in moments and Misato started to take in all the data and form a plan. Since there was no way to help their Eva's in the fight, they had to use the buildings as cover. She walked over to Makoto's station and asked him to bring up the Eva's. "Unit 3 just got it's battery packs attached," he said. "Keep them running off base power until the fight begins," Misato ordered. "Is that wise? The longer they're hooked up to the base, the less power we get," Makoto pointed our. "No sense in wasting their packs' power. The operation of the Eva's for the most amount of time takes priority over our convinence," Misato said in a way that made the subject closed. Makoto agreed with her. "Place as many battery packs as you can in each weapon building." "Major, we only have another 16 charged packs, and at two packs per Eva that means..." Maya trailed off as Misato glared at her. "Then put 2 in a building. Use this one, this one, this one, and that one," she said while pointing to the buildings on the screen that she wanted. "Open a channel to the Eva's. Alright," she said when her order was followed, "this is the only we can help you. This means that you each have another two battery packs for the fight, but it will take at least 15 seconds to attach them yourselves. In the fight, that time could be costly. The plan is to stagger the attacks," she said. "Ma'am?" Toji asked, confused about what she meant. "When the time comes, Asuka will disconnect her umbilical cable and attack. Twenty seconds later, Rei will follow. Then you, Toji, twenty seconds later. And then Shinji. This way, you can cover the others when they need to drop their packs and get new ones. This also has the added advantage of not having all four of you having to change packs at the same time." Asuka, however, decided she needed to refute that statement. "What makes you think that _I'm_ going to need more packs?" "Because the Magi are unanimous in that it'll take at least 20 minutes of continous firepower to shut all nine enemy Eva's down," Ritsuko supplied. "Oh," was all Asuka could reply. Shinji just shook his head. 'Asuka never changes,' he thought. 'Could that be one reason I'm attracted to her? Am I attracted to her?' he thought, but cut them off. The enemy Eva's had landed in the city and were moving directly towards NERV headquaters. "How long will each set of powerpacks last?" Shinji asked. "At least eight minutes each. There have been several improvments made since you left," Ristuko added when she saw the look on his face. 'Of course he wouldn't know, he's been gone for three years,' she thought reprovingly. Unfortunatly for all present in Nerv headquaters, their hopes for surviving the upcoming fight were chased away when Eva's 5 to 13 started to alter their courses. They spred out and started to take different routes to the base. "This is a problem," Rei stated over an open channel so her face appeared on all the Eva's screen and she got everyone's face on hers.. "Do you always have to state the obvious?" Asuka angrily replied. "Get off her case, Asuka," Toji said, coming to his friend's rescue. Asuka stole a glance at Shinji's face in the screen before her and saw...something in his eyes. It might have been anger, but then again, she knew she couldn't place it, given the way that he's changed over the last few weeks. But the she remembered Toji's words and started to yell back. "Well, I nev-" "THAT'S ENOUGH!" a voice roared. It took everybody a few moments to place it. It was Shinji's. Shinji, the one person who nobody had ever heard his voice raised in such anger before. Shinji, a different person than the one who'd left three years ago. "Focus on the fight!" he added once he knew he had everybody's attention. Misato was dumbstruck. Shinji actually _wanted_ to fight? She looked over to Ritsuko, only to see that the expression on her face mirrored Misato's own. Commander Ikari only smiled a bit; it was so small that Fuyutsuki doubted that it was ever there. "He's right, Misato. We have to focus on the fight," Kaji said, right behind her. She turned, only to see him with a small grin on his face. "And just what is so funny?" she demanded. "Ma'am! The enemy have started to search! They're looking for something!" a tech yelled out before Kaji could answer. "What did you say?!" "They're searching in attack formation. They're ready to fight whatever they find!," the tech answered. "You guys hear that? They'll be ready for you when you start, so don't hold back," Misato said to the teens. "Just let me at them and you'll see how ready I am," Asuka said, her voice thick with arrogance. Misato only sighed and looked over at Ritsuko. She nodded at Misato. Misato looked over at the Commanders. Fuyutsuki nodded after glancing at the Supreme Commander of Nerv. "Detatch external power! Eva Unit 2, attack!" she shouted. In response to her words, the umbilical cable fell off the Evas back and Unit 2 sprang forward, running out of it's hiding place. Everyone in Central Dogma held their breath when Eva Unit 8 caught sight of the approching form and turned to face it fully, all weaopns ready. The war of the Evangelions was about to begin. end Cory Holmes gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca Thanks to Jefferson K Armstrong, and MisterRios